The New Media Consortium opened enrollment for its free, online mini-course, “Applications of Social Media for STEMx Teaching,” which will take place on Facebook. The NMC is the first known education organization to offer a course that takes place exclusively on a Facebook community page.

A recent questionnaire by the Reform Support Network shows that state and local education agencies are increasingly using social media as a tool to engage with and inform parents, students, teachers, and the entire community.

Public schools are keenly aware of the power of the mainstream media; a critical television segment or a laudatory newspaper article will be talked about in the hallways for days. But the landscape has shifted, and school leaders must embrace a new, growing reality: social media has become the source for breaking news.

During my eight years as a teacher and education consultant, I have seen an acceleration in the digital shift in education. When I began in 2005 at age 23, it was at the beginning of Web 2.0. My students weren’t yet posting status updates on Facebook; nor were they tweeting, sharing videos or bringing smartphones to class. Boy, were things about to change.

Lisa Nelson of the Innovative Educator blog looked to her peers for ideas on how to use Pinterest as a creative tool and was surprised that she was unable to get any help. Then she discovered Pinterest guru NewYorkBob and the ideas began flowing. Here are her five favorites.

Officials of the Pennsville (N.J.) School District introduced a policy recently that sets up parameters for staff using social networking sites while working within the district. The policy outlines security and appropriate procedures for using district technology resources.

The Board of Education is considering three separate policies geared toward improving the use and security of technology in Howard County (Md.) schools: Ensuring the proper security of all technology within the school system, defining the acceptable use of technology with the school system, and determining the proper use of social media among students and teachers.